By Elliott Brack | This year’s Academy Awards winners and the reception of moviegoers of nominated movies gives pause to think. It sent me to one of Gwinnett’s premier events, the bi-annual awarding of the $50,000 Hudgens Art Prize for Georgia artists.The Hudgens Awards program has recently announced the finalists in its third competition. The winner will be announced on June 13.
A few days after the Academy Award winners were announced, all it took was looking at the top winners, and comparing what happens at movie houses. As it was put by one story, “In the end, it was the audience that got snubbed.” Later that same story said: “…its movie awards have become hopelessly detached from movie viewers.”
The Academy’s winning movie this year, Birdman, has been seen by less than five million people. As a comparison, the Clint Eastwood movie, American Sniper, has found nearly 40 million people paying to see it. Another nominee which didn’t win, The Imitation Game, now counts 10 million viewers.
Just because movies are popular, of course, is no reason to give it an Academy Award. But recent changes in Academy procedures, to enlarge the field of entries, and bringing in more small-movie judges, may not have been as positive as some feel.
Now back to the Hudgens Prize. The basic rules for the competition are simple: “… the competition is open to artists age 18 and older, who are full-time Georgia residents. Visual artwork of any medium will be considered.”
That said, this competition gets considerable interest from Georgia amateur and professional artists, as normally at least 350 entries are sent in. From looking at entries submitted in past years, it’s clear that a majority of the entries are more-or-less conventional visual art, whether paintings, collages, photographs or similar material. The diversity of artists and entries is amazing.
However, some of the entries are “new age” and off-the-wall visual works. For the first two $50,000 prize awards, the judges seemed more inclined to favor cutting-edge media than traditional art. That may be because of the selection of the judges themselves, who have been distinguished art professionals and curators from around the country, and may feel more inclined to favor avant garde rather than conventional artists.
For instance, judges announced for the 2015 competition will be: Shannon Fitzgerald, executive director of the Rochester Art Center, Minn.; Buzz Spector, professor of art, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.; and Hamza Walker, associate curator, Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Ill.
Now take a look at who has been selected as finalists for the Hudgens Prize (Click the highlighted link to see their work):
- Bethany Collins, Atlanta, multimedia conceptual art, who recently completed a residency at the Studio Museum in Harlem.
- Scott Ingram, Atlanta, painting, drawing, sculpture and design, who was also a Hudgens finalist in 2010, is among the grantees of MOCA GA’s 2013–14 Working Artist Project.
- Rylan Steele, Columbus, photography and video, who recently exhibited a series of photos about Ave Maria, a planned Catholic community in Florida.
- Orion Wertz, Columbus, painting and illustration. Wertz writes and illustrates his own books.
There will be a group show of the four nominees on display at the Hudgens Art Center from April 7 to June 27, with the winner announced June 13. In April, 2016, the winner will open a solo exhibition at the Hudgens Art Center.
In June, we’ll see what type of art the jury feels is most deserving of the Hudgens Prize.
Will the winner be more like the Academy Awards, not always in line with popular taste, or not?
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